


To Implode

by dunk_on_em (the_author_at_221B)



Series: Between Your Lungs, Under Your Heart [1]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Codependency, Crying, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, rated M for last chapter, you cowards refuse to write angst so i guess its up to me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-01 07:45:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16280477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_author_at_221B/pseuds/dunk_on_em
Summary: It shouldn't be possible to separate a single entity. If something moved, acted, and thought as one, you shouldn't be able to separate it into two.The damage that it does is nothing short of ruining.





	1. Separation

Venom was afraid.

And there was something to be said for that. As Eddie threw himself in to an empty room, he gave himself time to think about that fact. _Venom_ was scared. Not the entity of that comprised them both, but the singular being of Venom. He kicked open the closet door that was on his right, and threw the both of them through. The inky black threads of his symbiote felt like molten lead, weighing them both down. Venom was terrified, Eddie was not, and he had no idea why. That thought alone was enough to make Eddie’s pulse quicken, and they were very quickly back in harmony once more.

“ _What_?” he stammered out, pushing the back of his head into the wall. “What the _fuck_ is going on? This is nothing, this is – this is normal! We can _handle_ this.”

Venom was silent. Eddie closed the closet door.

“I can _feel_ you, asshole! You’re freaking the fuck out. What’s going on?” That part was true. The murky feeling that he knew to be his other half was nestled in the center of his chest, not speaking, but just radiating anxiety. “ _Tell_ me.”

Outside, the door crashed in, and Eddie breathed heavily through his nose as he attempted to keep both himself and Venom silent. This was supposed to be a _reporting_ job. He had an informant, a guy he had met a couple of weeks ago. Said the only reason he knew about Eddie was because of that reporting show he had done three lifetimes ago. Said he had proof there was a human-trafficking ring running in the middle of San Francisco. Said he knew where the boss was, and said it would be easy to break into the fucker’s house and take pictures.

He said a lot of things.

Eddie had a bad feeling about this all from the jump, but money was tight, and things were a lot simpler when Venom wasn’t looking to devour everyone out of hunger.

**Don’t blame this on me.**

_I’m not, I’m just stating the fucking facts_ , Eddie snapped within his own mind. He quickly stopped when he realized that the anxiety coming from Venom didn’t abide. He curled his own fingers into fists, and forced himself to think calmly. _What is going on?_

**They have something with them, Eddie.**

_What? What something?_

**Something to take me from you. Something to break a bond. I can feel it near.**

Eddie forced himself to take a breath, hoping to calm the swirling mass in his chest. He ignored his own fear that bubbled up at Venom’s words, and tried to will Venom to do the same. _Then this was a set-up then. They were after you from the start_. He could still hear the men banging around outside their door. It was only a matter of time before they were discovered.

**After _us_ , Eddie. **

_Let’s fuck them up then._

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Eddie felt the familiar warmth of Venom enveloping them. Teeth appeared in the peripheral corners of his eyes, and then seemed to swallow up his vision entirely. When Eddie could see again, it was through the milky-white film of Venom. Venom- _they_ broke out of the closet, shattering the door and the man in front of them in the process. They made quick work of the men in the room, slashing and striking at anything they could see. Eddie could feel Venom start to actually _relax_ as he unleashed hell, which was only mildly concerning. They could handle this. These men had nothing but guns, and guns they could definitely handle.

And then out in the hallway, a grenade went off.

And the world seemed to shatter.

Eddie couldn’t tell who was screaming, if it was Venom or if it was himself. All they could feel was pain as they felt their symbiote, their alien, their _Other_ , their – All they could feel was pain as they felt half of themself get pulled away. All they could feel was pain, and all they could hear was the highest-pitched, and loudest noise either of them had ever heard. Eddie forced his eyes open, and he could see the mask in front of him peel away. But not in the fluid, _effortless_ motion Venom normally makes when he retreats into Eddie. It was like Venom was being clawed away from Eddie’s very being.

 In a moment of desperation, Eddie closed his hands on the strings of Venom they could find, pushed them towards his chest, and charged blindly to the window. They had to protect Venom, they had to get out, they had to protect _Venom_.

The glass shattered and they fell gracelessly to the concrete a whole two floors below.

Eddie didn’t lose consciousness, thanks only to the black vines of Venom that cushioned his fall. A wave of relief washed over him as he felt Venom swirl in his chest, scared but still there. He put his hand over his heart, as he laid on the ground unable to even form words. He felt Venom push back with emotions of their own, of relief and of an ever-growing fear. Eddie felt his own relief turn quickly to anger at the ones who fucking dared tried to take _his_ Venom.

**We have to leave, Eddie. We have to leave _now_. **

“I know, but so help me _God_ – We’re going to be back, they’re going to - ”

A second grenade landed on top of their chest.

And the world went white.

* * *

 

Eddie awoke in the exact same place. Night had fallen, and the world around him was silent. He put his hand over his chest.

 _Venom_ , he thought, pushing down on his chest.

There was no response.

“Venom?” Eddie was speaking aloud now, growing louder as the panic rose up within him. “Where the hell are you? _Venom_?” His hands scrambled across his chest, and across the ground as he struggled to pull himself up.

There was nothing in his head, no pressure within his body, no inky black tendrils appearing from within.

He didn’t know he was screaming until his voice finally gave out.


	2. Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This had happened only once before, and in a completely different way.  
> This is something he doesn't think he can handle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Venom?” Eddie was speaking aloud now, growing louder as the panic rose up within him. “Where the hell are you? Venom?” His hands scrambled across his chest, and across the ground as he struggled to pull himself up.  
> There was nothing in his head, no pressure within his body, no inky black tendrils appearing from within.  
> He didn’t know he was screaming until his voice finally gave out.

 

There had been a time, a fucking rough time, where Eddie had thought that he had lost Venom. When Eddie had crashed into the water, Riot’s ship exploding overhead, Eddie had thought that Venom was simply _gone_. He had crawled onto the shore, gasping for breath and frantically calling Venom’s name. There had been no response then either, only what felt like a giant _rock_ where his chest should be.

He had walked home that night, turning down the offer of a couch at Anne’s place, and feeling like his heart weighed a metric ton. When he walked into the threshold of his shitty apartment, he simply broke. His knees had hit the floor, and he cried without knowing what he was crying for. He then gathered what little strength he had left and destroyed whatever furniture Venom hadn’t when they fought together as one for the first time.

He had spent the next seven days cleaning what had been destroyed. He put tables and chairs back together, and scrubbed floors until there wasn’t any blood left. The stone he carried in his chest had grown larger and larger, and Eddie felt like he would soon collapse under the weight of it all.

A day after that, he did. The weight seemed to travel from his heart to his lungs, causing him to fall to the floor. He thought about calling Dan, calling anyone, because he felt like he was dying. He was _dying_ and Venom wasn’t even there to help, wasn’t even there to speak, and he was _alone_ , and he was-

**Eddie.**

Eddie had stopped breathing almost completely. “I don’t - ”

**Eddie, I was –**

“Where _are_ you?” Eddie choked out between gasps. “You absolute _bastard_ , where _are_ you?”

And there he was. Like he had never left. There was an inky black puddle in the center of Eddie’s chest at first, that seemed to push out of him until there was a face mere inches from his. Milky white eyes, sharp teeth, and a stupidly long tongue. It was Venom. He was _home_.

**I was _hibernating_ , stupid. We were _hurt_ and I had to heal us both.**

And Eddie might have been imagining things, but Venom’s voice sounded almost desperate. Their eyes were widened almost impossibly large, and they drew even closer.

**I am – sorry. I was healing us. I thought you felt us still.**

Eddie had no words.

**It would take much more than that to make us leave you, Eddie.**

Without much thought, Eddie reached forward and grabbed Venom’s face in his two hands. He pushed his own head into the space between Venom’s eyes, breathing in with a ragged sob. He wept once more, still not fully understanding why. He had simply pushed his head into Venom’s _harder_ , and hoped that Venom could understand for them.

Venom closed their eyes, and the weight that had lodged itself in Eddie’s chest for over a week seemed to dissolve.

 

* * *

 

As Eddie surveyed the damage around them, his ears still ringing, he knew almost immediately that something was different. When Venom was hibernating, his chest felt heavy. It had been a slumbering symbiote the entire time, but he had felt weighed down.

He climbed to his feet, and ignored the tear stains on his cheeks and the stinging of his throat. He felt – empty. He felt weightless in a way that unnerved him completely.

“Venom?” He called out once more, not caring that his voice barely made it past his lips. He didn’t know why Venom would respond to his broken whisper if they didn’t respond to his screams, but he didn’t care about that either.

There was only silence in response.  Judging by how dark it was, it seemed that Venom was taken from him at least six hours ago. Which meant they could be just about fucking _anywhere_. Gritting his teeth, Eddie rushed back to the building. He found the nearest window on the ground floor and kicked it in. While he climbed through, the shards of glass still attached to the frame scraped his sides, drawing blood. Eddie pushed through anyway, hoping to find _anyone_ in this building who had answers.

As he ran through the halls of what used to a generic office building, Eddie tried to ignore how strange it felt to move independently. He had become so used to Venom’s ever-present guidance. It had gotten to the point where Eddie couldn’t tell if it was Venom or himself making the decisions when they ran, or fought, or _existed_ , and that’s when Venom was the happiest. And Eddie was the happiest then, too.

The cuts on his side started to hurt more, and Eddie was almost shocked when he noticed. Venom normally healed them before Eddie even realized they were hurt at all. But now he was experiencing pain once more, and he cursed himself for how weak he felt.

 _This must be why they let me live_ , Eddie thought darkly. _They knew I would be no threat without **them**_.

Eddie moved faster, his chest still feeling empty. He would find Venom. Eddie refused to believe that he would be able to exist in a world without his Other.  His heart would have stopped by now if Venom was truly-

He didn’t let himself finish the thought.

Eddie climbed two flights of stairs, back to the room where the first fight had taken place. To his disappointment and ever-growing frustration, whoever took Venom had removed all the bodies that they had torn into. Eddie got a grim sense of satisfaction seeing the carpet stained red. They took Venom, they deserved it. They took a part of _him_ away.

Eyes stinging once more, Eddie turned his head. He had never told Venom what he felt. He _assumed_ that Venom already knew, but he never worked up the guts to tell them. He didn’t think he could live with that regret as his reality. He needed to find Venom, he needed to bring them _home_. He couldn’t survive with nothing but regrets and an empty chest.  

When he finally opened his eyes, his gaze fell on a torn shirt, flung onto a bookshelf. He walked over and picked it up in his hands. It was the same material that the men he had fought were wearing. Whoever cleaned up had missed this.

As he examined the material closer, he found a simple word sewn into the opposite side, where the tag should be.

_PRISM_

After an initial moment of confusion, Eddie about started to laugh, half relieved and half infuriated. If he had been anyone else he wouldn’t have had a fucking clue what that word meant.

But he had done a report on these fuckers, before Venom had even come along. The _Pharmaceutical Research Institute of San Francisco and Multinational Interests_ had been one of the worst kinds of corporations. Like Drake, they had no problem testing on those who couldn’t defend themselves. Like Drake, they were willing to destroy anything and anyone in the name of ‘science’.

Eddie stuffed the shirt in his back pocket, and raced back down the stairs and onto the street. He knew exactly where these bastards were. He knew where _Venom_ was, and that thought alone was enough to make his throat close up.

They were going to regret letting him live.

Like Drake, he was going to enjoy watching them burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bless all of u who have reviewed so far you mean the world to me  
> i hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as i enjoyed writing it  
> im gonna draw out this angst for one more chapter yall better believe it
> 
> please let me know what you think!!! i love you all dearly


	3. Completion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie stuffed the shirt in his back pocket, and raced back down the stairs and onto the street. He knew exactly where these bastards were. He knew where Venom was, and that thought alone was enough to make his throat close up.  
> They were going to regret letting him live. 
> 
> Eddie is desperate, and time is running out for the both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank all of you who have read and supported me so far. I love you all dearly, and I sincerely hope you like this final chapter. I'd love to hear what you think of it!

The anger only got Eddie so far. To _get_ to the office, Venom had done most of the moving. When they were together and running, Eddie felt almost _weightless_. They had flung themselves from rooftop to rooftop, their claws tearing huge chunks of cement away as they jumped. It was effortless. They traversed the 22 miles from their apartment to the office in less than 20 minutes.

Without Venom, it was – a completely different story. _PRISM_ ’s offices were less than an hour’s drive out of San Francisco. When Eddie had first pieced together where Venom was, he had blindly taken off, running in the _general direction_ of his other half.

But the anger only got Eddie so far. He made it about four blocks before the blinding rage drained away and was swiftly replaced by panic and desperation.  His legs seized up, and his entire frame shook. Breath was harder and harder to come by. He put his hands on his knees and bent forward, trying to slow his breathing.

_This wasn’t going to work._ He was so far away from the apartment where his motorcycle was. It was the dead of the night, there weren’t any taxis in the business district.  He had _no_ transportation, Venom was so far away, _and this wasn’t going to work_ , he was so _fucking stupid_ -

Eddie bent down further, curling into himself. Venom was on the other fucking side of the city, where people did God-knows-what to them, and Eddie was here, _panicking_. He stood up quickly, wiping tears away with the back of his hand. He needed to _focus._

He jogged a half-block more, looking for anything that could help him. Finally, he found something. Across the street, there was a sign for a city parking structure. He sprinted in the direction of the arrow, while ignoring the burning crawling up his thighs. When he entered the building, he about wept at the sight of three cars parked in the ‘overnight’ section. He ran to the nearest one, a black two-door. Venom would have liked it. He liked cars more than Eddie did, for whatever weird reason.

With that thought, Eddie pulled back his elbow, and slammed it into the driver’s side window. The pain was immediate and humiliating.

The window didn’t even crack.

Cussing cloudy, Eddie ran back outside. He found a brick that was being used to outline an office’s pathetic garden space. He then ran back to the parking structure. Not even breaking stride, he sent it sailing through the driver’s window. Immediately, the alarm went off, high-pitched and loud.

_Venom would be freaking the fuck out_ , Eddie thought with only a faint smile. Ignoring the alarm, he pried open the panel underneath the wheel, praying he still remembered how to do this.

Being a reporter got him into a couple of scrapes, but it had been a while since he had to do anything like this.

As Eddie frantically pulled on wires and tried to remember anything about hotwiring, he heard voices coming from across the lot. His heart sank, as he tried to will his hands to move faster.

“Hey! What the _fuck_ do you think you’re doing?” A middle-aged security guard with a flashlight came jogging toward them. He turned the light on Eddie. “Man, get the fuck out of the car and put your hands up! The cops are already on their way, idiot.”

“Listen, _listen_ ,” Eddie held out his hand as the guard approached him. “I’m really fucking sorry about this but you don’t- but you don’t _understand_. I need this for- ”

He was cut off by the yanking of his collar as the guard tried to pull him out of the seat. At that exact moment, the car’s engine roared to life.

Eddie didn’t even think, he just threw the car into reverse. The door was still open. The alarm was still going. The security guard was knocked to the floor, as Eddie screamed backwards out of the lot. Barely slowing down the car at all, he threw the gears into drive, and took off down the road.

He didn’t close the door, although the wind pushed it shut after a while.

He didn’t figure out how to shut the alarm off, but he didn’t even seem to hear it.

He didn’t stop for red lights, and he didn’t even notice. It was like he had tunnel vision. All he could think about was Venom. All he could imagine was being reunited with the part of him that was missing.

He arrived at the front of PRISM’s main doors within the hour. The first signs of dawn were creeping over the horizon, meaning that Venom had been taken from him no more than 12 hours ago. Eddie refused to let another hour go by.

The first thing he noticed as he exited the car _without_ bothering to shut it off was that all cameras along the walls immediately focused in on him. He heard an alarm go off inside the building, blaring in time with the one behind him from the car.

So. He was less than glad that they knew he was coming. All he could hope was that Venom knew too.  The anger was back, clearing his mind of everything except his goal. He climbed the stairs to the main doors, two steps at a time. The doors were locked. Eddie took a couple of steps back, and then threw himself into the glass.

This time, it did break. Glass flew everywhere, and the alarms seemed to intensify. There was a rush of footsteps to his left, and Eddie turned around in time to be faced with four armored men, all carrying weapons.

Charging head first, he tackled the guard closest to him. The others drew their weapons and aimed at Eddie, but Eddie already had what he wanted. He dug his fingers into the palm of the guard and pried the gun from the struggling man. He pulled it away from his grasp with a gasp, falling backwards. Eddie reached up with his new weapon and fired at the three still standing. They all went down before they had a chance to react.

Eddie looked down at the man he had tackled. He had _killed_ three men. He had killed before, but only with Venom. And even then, only the bad ones. This was different. He was by _himself_ and he had _killed_ , and there was _no one_ to shuffle the blame off to.  He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. It was worth it. These men took Venom. Anything would be worth it.

The prone guard must have sensed Eddie’s hesitation, because he pulled at the radio attached to his vest and started to scream into it.

“He’s alive! This fucker is still alive! Send reinforcements to level one and - ” Eddie brought the back of his gun down on the guard’s head, forcing him into unconsciousness.

Charging into the building without a plan seemed to be a bad idea then. He had no idea where Venom was, and judging by the guard’s message, time was running out here. He needed to find Venom and _quickly_. He got back up and tore into the main lobby. He punched the _up_ button on the wall for the elevator, and furiously scanned the directory.

He found what he was looking for on the twelfth floor. With the simple title of _Experimental Labs_ , Eddie knew that _that_ _had_ to be it.  He felt a tug in his heart. Venom was there. He just had to be.

With a soft ping, the elevator doors slid silently open. A group of men were waiting for him, guns already drawn. Eddie heard the silent _click_ of a trigger, and everything went black.

* * *

 

All Eddie felt was pain. He came to slowly, and it hurt so _fucking_ bad. The pain in his head was tolerable, it was something he could manage.  It was the pain in heart that was going to kill him. He fucked up. He had _failed_. His head rolled to the side. He was propped up on something, that he did know. But he couldn’t seem to open his eyes just yet. Another wave of pain washed over him. It didn’t matter anyway. They were going to kill him.

But he had failed Venom, so he probably deserved it.

“ _Venom_ ”, Eddie groaned, struggling to open his eyes. What were they doing with them? Where were they? Did they know Eddie tried?

“Mr. Brock?” A gentle voice sounded from a couple of feet away. “Mr. Brock, are you awake?”

Slits of light appeared in Eddie’s vision. They got larger and larger until eventually Eddie was able to squint into the bright room.

A tall, slightly graying man wearing a black fitted suit peered down at him. “We were beginning to think you wouldn’t wake up,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Where’s Venom?” Eddie slurred out, feeling his mind begin to clear.

“Do you know just how valuable your-”

“Where the _fuck_ is Venom?” Eddie was glaring upwards now, trying to seem as intimidating as a halfway drugged man could be.

The man in the center of the room sighed, and glanced downwards. Then he tilted his head towards a couple of men wheeling something in. Eddie sat up straighter and then slid back down into his seat as though his very breath had been snatched from him.

Venom. In a small cell much like the one Drake kept them in at the beginning. They were small. They were small and they were – deathly still. Eddie’s heart sank to the floor.

“ _Venom_!” he screamed, struggling to get up. The man in front of him walked closer and pushed him back down. His simple grip felt like a vice.

“I wouldn’t try that,” he said softly, pinning Eddie to the chair with just his hand. Eddie was about to scream again when he saw a thin black tendril press itself against the glass.

Eddie pushed against the hand once more, to no avail.

“You have to let me up!” he shouted. “I have to get them! They’re going to – they’re going to die if I don’t get them! They need me, you have to -” his voice broke as his heart did, seeing Venom so weak. “You have to let me up.”

The man seemed unaffected by Eddie’s outburst, and continued on. “I must say, we were surprised to see you here, Mr. Brock.” He pushed harder on Eddie’s shoulder. “Our men figured you would die from shock when separation occurred.”

_I about did_ , Eddie thought, his eyes not leaving the still form of Venom.

“But, now that you’re here, we have a couple of questions for you.”

“I need to get to Venom,” Eddie murmured.

“Why _is that_ exactly?” The man pressed on. “We offered your friend here a _fair share_ of hosts, but it accepted none of them. Why _is_ that?”

Eddie refused to look away from Venom, pieces of a plan beginning to form.

“Is it a blood type thing? Something to do with genetics?” He grabbed Eddies jaw and forced it upwards so they met eyes. “It’s going to be a long day, I can promise you that. Cooperate, and this will go a whole lot smoother.”

“Fuck _you_ ,” Eddie snarled, and slammed his head into the other man’s chin. He gave a shout of pain and staggered backwards. Eddie stood up, wobbly but determined, and stumbled towards Venom. The guards weren’t prepared for Eddie to move at all, and they fumbled with their weapons as they tried to draw them. But Eddie wasn’t concerned with them at all.

He grabbed the cart that held Venom and rejoiced as he saw two more tendrils reach up and touch the glass.

“I’ve got you,” he gasped. “We’re gonna be okay”. He ran toward the glass window, ignoring the shouts and gunfire behind him.

Eddie had fucked so many things up in his life.

He _prayed_ to get this one thing right.

The cart carrying Venom crashed through the window, with Eddie close behind.

They fell.

Twelve stories down.

The canister carrying Venom hit the ground first. Inky black tentacles surged upwards to catch the one who saved them both.

* * *

 

They were back at the apartment. Their shitty, shitty apartment with next to no food, drafty windows, and an even shittier landlord. But it was theirs, and they were home.  PRISM’s headquarters were a distant memory. That building would stay in pieces for a long time. The ones who resided inside would never hurt Venom again. They had made absolutely certain of that.

Eddie sat in the center of his living room. His arms were wrapped around his chest. He was crying again, although this time it was for a different reason.

He could feel Venom moving around inside, frantically fixing whatever got broken in their absence. The scratches from the broken window were healed, the grogginess from whatever he was drugged with was gone, the ache in his muscles slowly faded away.

“You can-” Eddie stopped, surprised by how scratchy his voice sounded. “You can relax, I’m going to be okay. You’re the one who’s hurt. You almost-” He took a deep breath in. “You almost _died_ , Venom.”

The swirling in his chest moved to his head, and bumped around in there for what felt like ages. They then moved back down, and within seconds, Venom’s face was in front of his. Smaller than normal, but there. Eddie didn’t even wait to hear what Venom had to say. He took their face in both of his hands and brought it closer. He put his head between their eyes and did his best to throw his very _heart_ at Venom, hoping it would make sense. He poured every bit of worry, and care, and panic, and desperation, and _love_ that he could find into what hoped was Venom’s mind.

**You did not fail us, Eddie.**

“I about did.”

**You _didn’t!_** Venom near roars into the space between them. Eddie pulls back a bit, and sees Venom’s gaze focused on him. Venom closes their eyes, and before Eddie can ask why, Venom sends back an emotional tidal wave of their own.

He’s struck with memories that are not his own. Memories of seeing his own body lie still on the pavement as Venom is collected, helpless, and loaded into a truck. Memories of hosts attempting to bond with them. Memories of a deep hunger, and an even deeper panic.

But above all else, Venom shows him the certainty they felt. They knew Eddie would return. They just needed to hold on until then. It was that thought, that singular belief that carried them through.

Eddie didn’t know what to say.

**You never do.**

“Shut _up_ ,” he choked out, laughing as he pressed his face closer once more. He kissed them between their eyes, and near the top of their head, hoping that Venom understood.

And as Venom tilted their face up for a proper kiss, Eddie couldn’t help but think that they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you all so very, very much. I'd love to hear any and all thoughts you might have about this work, it means the world to me. There will be a second part to this, which will be rated E for a reason.  
> Thank you all so much.

**Author's Note:**

> am i a monster fucker now after Venom (2018) i dont know and i refuse to think about it and if you ask me ill call the police  
> anyway if you could review i would love you to bits  
> find me on tumblr at spockazilla.tumblr.com


End file.
